Shah Jahan

Shah Jahān, opaque watercolour, gold, and ink on paper, c. 1690.Gift of Jane Greenough Green in memory of Thomas Pelton Green (AC1994.59.2)/LACMAShah Jahān, also spelled Shāhjahān or Shah Jehan, also called (until 1628) Prince Khurram, original name Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad Khurram (born January 5, 1592, Lahore [now in Pakistan]—died January 22, 1666, Agra [now in India]), Mughal emperor of India (1628–58) who built the Taj Mahal.

He was the third son of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr and the Rajput princess Manmati. In 1612 he married Arjūmand Bānū Begum, niece of Jahāngīr’s wife Nūr Jahān, and became, as Prince Khurram, a member of the influential Nūr Jahān clique of the middle period of Jahāngīr’s reign. In 1622 Khurram, ambitious to win the succession, rebelled, ineffectually roaming the empire until reconciled to Jahāngīr in 1625. After Jahāngīr’s death in 1627, the support of Āṣaf Khan, Nūr Jahān’s brother, enabled Shah Jahān to proclaim himself emperor at Agra (February 1628).

Shah Jahān’s reign was notable for successes against the Deccan (peninsular Indian) states. By 1636 Ahmadnagar had been annexed and Golconda and Vijayapura (Bijapur) forced to become tributaries. Mughal power was also temporarily extended in the northwest. In 1638 the Persian governor of Kandahār, ʿAlī Mardān Khan, surrendered that fortress to the Mughals. In 1646 Mughal forces occupied Badakhshān and Balkh, but in 1647 Balkh was relinquished, and attempts to reconquer it in 1649, 1652, and 1653 failed. The Persians reconquered Kandahār in 1649. Shah Jahān transferred his capital from Agra to Delhi in 1648, creating the new city of Shāhjahānābād there.

Indian writers have generally characterized Shah Jahān as the very ideal of a Muslim monarch. But though the splendour of the Mughal court reached its zenith under him, he also set in motion influences that finally led to the decline of the empire. His expeditions against Balkh and Badakhshān and his attempts to recover Kandahār brought the empire to the verge of bankruptcy. In religion, Shah Jahān was a more orthodox Muslim than Jahāngīr or his grandfather, Akbar, but a less orthodox one than Aurangzeb. He proved a relatively tolerant ruler toward his Hindu subjects.

Funeral of Shah Jahān, 18th-century painting.The British Library—Heritage-Images/ImagestateIn September 1657 Shah Jahān fell ill, precipitating a struggle for succession between his four sons, Dārā Shikōh, Murād Bakhsh, Shah Shujāʿ, and Aurangzeb. The victor, Aurangzeb, declared himself emperor in 1658 and strictly confined Shah Jahān in Agra Fort until his death.